title: Mesoporous carbon-carbon nanotube-sulfur composite microspheres for high-areal-capacity lithium-sulfur battery cathodes.
abstract: Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries offer theoretical energy density much higher than that of lithium-ion batteries, but their development faces significant challenges. Mesoporous carbon-sulfur composite microspheres are successfully synthesized by combining emulsion polymerization and the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process. Such materials not only exhibit high sulfur-specific capacity and excellent retention as Li-S cathodes but also afford much improved tap density, sulfur content, and areal capacity necessary for practical development of high-energy-density Li-S batteries. In addition, when incorporated with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form mesoporous carbon-CNT-sulfur composite microspheres, the material demonstrated superb battery performance even at a high current density of 2.8 mA/cm(2), with a reversible capacity over 700 mAh/g after 200 cycles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Terrence
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jiangxuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Mikhail L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gordin
authors.forename: Hiesang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Zhaoxin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Shuru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Donghai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang